Moving from the structural aspects and macro-level actors within Vietnam’s organic sector to the perceptions and agency of individuals, this section zooms in on consumers of organic food in HCMC. The aim of the analysis of empirical data on organic food consumption is to com-pare and contrast the narratives of the interviewees with the structures and trajectories of the country’s (organic) food system as it exists today.
Before going into the underlying motivations of customers and entre-preneurs of organic food, these will be briefly portrayed. The basis for the portrayal are 13 interviews with customers of an organic shop in the city centre, as well as 2 interviews with organic entrepreneurs. One of the entrepreneurs, whom I will refer to as Hoa,8 is the owner and founder of a number of organic shops—one of which was a site for the customer interviews—that sell organic produce from affiliated farms within Vietnam as well as certified imported organic goods. At the time of the interviews, the farms were in the process of becoming certified as some of the first for the Vietnamese market. The other entrepreneur, Minh, is the
founder of a service delivering uncertified organically produced fruits and vegetables from his farm to customers in the city centre.
All but one of the interviewees were women, a gender imbalance that complied with general observations in food outlets, whether organic shops, markets, or supermarkets in the city. Although increasing partici-pation of men in food shopping has generally been observed, especially in more aspirational urban lifestyle places such as supermarkets, food shop-ping is still often considered a predominantly female task (Wertheim- Heck and Spaargaren 2016). On closer examination many of the female customers also turned out to be mothers or other caretakers of young children—a characterisation shared by the founder of the organic deliv-ery service: Minh estimated that 95 per cent of his customers were moth-ers of babies, feeding organic produce to their children while often not consuming organic themselves (Interview, 10/2015). Age-wise the inter-viewed customers ranged from early 20s to mid-60s, with mothers in their 30s most strongly represented. Except for one older lady, the inter-viewees were all in employment or university students, an observation very much in line with the advice of the shop’s staff for the author to come after 5 p.m. in order to encounter respondents after office closing hours. Most interviewees were either in the process of acquiring higher education degrees or working in occupations requiring such, indicating a high level of education among the respondents. The often exceptionally high English skills of many of the customers—half of whom preferred to lead the interviews in English9—furthermore hinted at a potentially pri-vate education and/or an international work environment. When asked to portray the company’s customer base, one of the organic entrepreneurs described managers or business owners, having middle to high incomes, with high being estimated at USD 1000 per capita and month. Yet, peo-ple with lower incomes were not ruled out as potential customers: “Low income means it’s around USD 500 per month, it’s okay. But if you just can earn USD 50 or 100 per month it’s difficult [to buy organic]”
(Interview, 10/2015). Compared to Vietnamese average incomes,10 the estimated ‘low’ monthly income of USD 500 would still position the customers of this business well above the national average.
The common view that consumers of organic food necessarily have high incomes was challenged by the other interviewed entrepreneur who did not see income as the major factor among organic customers:
Mostly many people think that the rich people have money to buy organic products. But I think it’s not good based on, you know, I think many people, many customers they are still young. Students and young people. I think that they are not rich people but they still pay for organic products because they care about their health, their family health, future also …. But mostly people are medium, I mean average income. (Interview 01/2016)
Besides the income aspect the quote addresses a number of crucial aspects of organic food consumption, with the portrayal of consumers not only as young and often educated but also united in their concern for health, an observation that will be contextualised further on. While far from being a homogenous group, many of the interviewed customers did share certain characteristics in terms of gender, education, income as well as their motivations for organic consumption.
Organic Consumption for Environmental Concerns?
As elaborated previously, environmental considerations as well as concerns for the well-being of farmers or the future of the agricultural system were and are often part of the motivation for organic consumption elsewhere.
Some of the (limited) existing research on the consumer side of organic food in Vietnam has also pointed out environmental concerns as one of a range of reasons for organic consumption (Ho Thi Diep Quynh Chau 2015; VECO 2016). Yet when asked about their motives for organic con-sumption, such environmental concerns were not brought up indepen-dently as a reason for choosing organic by any of the costumers interviewed by the author. Interestingly, a baseline study among vegetable consumers in Hanoi carried out came up with contrasting results. According to the survey, the main reasons for buying safe or organic vegetables were health (91 per cent) and environmental protection (38 per cent), followed by better taste (20.5 per cent) (VECO 2016, 2).11 Whereas health in this survey emerged as the leading priority, which will be discussed later on, it
is striking that one third of the survey respondents stated environmental concerns as a motivation for organic consumption whereas this aspect was not brought up once by the interviewees of the authors’ research. The dif-ference is even more remarkable as the interviewee demographic of both research projects was similar, comprising mostly female, middle to high income, respondents (VECO 2016, 1). A quantitative survey among con-sumers in different food outlets in HCMC also showed a relation between environmental concern and the intention to purchase organic food (Ho Thi Diep Quynh Chau 2015). Here, contrasting the methodologies of quantitative and qualitative research has explanatory potential: in the case of the baseline study a structured questionnaire provided predetermined answers, stating environmental protection as one potential reason for organic consumption, while the qualitative open-ended questions under-lying this research did not offer such predetermined response categories.
Expecting and assuming that environmental concerns are a motive to pur-chase organic food might be a predetermined notion shaped by a Global North conception of organic consumption which potentially diverges from the Vietnamese context. Hence, the open-ended character of the interviews for this study allowed for exploring the interviewees’ subjective sense of and views on organic consumption of their own accord, poten-tially diverging from the researcher’s personal associations with and knowl-edge of organic farming.
The semi-structured interviews underlying this chapter also asked if consumers paid attention to the food’s origin when buying organic. In the cases in which origin was stated to be of importance at all, it was referred to in terms of product safety or international food standards in the countries of origin. Meanwhile, the issue of carbon footprints related to potentially long transport distances was not mentioned as a reason to pay attention to origin. While the reduction of environmental impact through ‘local’ consumption is often a component in organic consump-tion (see Brown et al. 2009), food miles were not an aspect that was expressed by any of the interviewed consumers.
As vegetables and, to a lesser degree, fruits—which happened to be from organically managed farms within Vietnam—were among the most purchased goods among the interviewees, the factor of food miles might simply not have been of any personal relevance here. At the same time,
the origin of the mainly imported processed goods on offer, for which the question of environmental costs of transportation would apply, was also not brought up by the interviewees.
Entrepreneur Hoa stressed having consumer education on sustainable agricultural development and the environmental benefits of organic agri-culture on her agenda, which unearthed a discrepancy between the entre-preneur’s assessment of her customers’ environmental aspirations and the views the customers themselves voiced. While Hoa assumed that her cus-tomers “think that if they buy organic they can contribute to agricultural development in Vietnam” (01/2016), such a motive was not named once by her customers.
The absence of environmental concerns in the motivations of organic customers not only marks a contrast to the narrative of the Vietnamese organic entrepreneurs. It also differs from the motives behind early organic niche markets in the Global North which—as elaborated before—have been intertwined with environmental citizen movements.
Moreover, the customers’ non-priority of environmental protection con-trasts the foreign supporters of organic development in Vietnam who proclaim environmental benefits at the core of their support.
Health & Food Safety
Health concerns appeared as a central topic among the interviewed con-sumers with their own health as well as that of their families being stated as the number one reason to purchase organic. The main fear here was of the long-term effects from consuming chemically contaminated food, mostly vegetables and meat, resulting in cancer as one customer expressed:
I think organic food is very good for your health, sort of you can protect, avoid the cancer. So the organic food they don’t use too much chemicals so they are very good. (Interview, 10/2015)
To avoid chemically contaminated food, consumers would resort to organic products in the knowledge that chemical inputs were not uti-lised. Besides the general thematisation of chemical usage in farming, the widespread narrative of farmers spraying produce with certain chemicals
that would make them grow unnaturally fast was also taken up by some of the interviewees. Thanh, 64 years old and regular customer at the shop, refers to this practice of growth acceleration: “I have a relative in the countryside, he told me that each two to three days people harvest chili, so horrible” (Interview, 10/2015). Organic vegetables on the other hand were believed to be grown slower and without such chemical enhancers.
Besides the application of chemicals in farming, concerns regarding growth hormones in meat were also frequently voiced. Here a university student, shopping vegetables for her family, explained why she has been restricting her meat consumption:
Because I know it’s not good to eat because they have poison in the meat.
It means that instead if you raise a pig or a buffalo you need about six months to grow it … and now usually they’re just three months I think and a few weeks before they sell for the meat company they will get food that helped the pig grow fast in two weeks. (Interview, 10/2015)
Generally, the interviews coincide with existing research stating an increasing demand for organic produce in Vietnam, especially for health reasons and among people with higher incomes (Moustier et al. 2006;
Thien T. Truong et al. 2012). The centrality of the health factor in organic consumption in turn must be put in relation to the overall food safety situation in current Vietnam in which the fear of unsafe, health- damaging substances in food is very prevalent. Especially in urban settings where people rely on external and anonymous food supplies, the complexity and anonymity of the food chain is often cause for concern. Anxieties over the safety of food mainly focus on high agrochemical residues in vegetables (Moustier et al. 2006, 297; Mergenthaler et al. 2009a, 267; Pham Van Hoi 2010, 3) and antibiotic remnants in meat (Figuié and Moustier 2009, 213)—the same concerns that were also voiced in the interviews with the customers. Practices of fraud such as the selling of counterfeit and sub-standard products are another source of insecurity over unsafe food (Figuié and Bricas 2010, 181). Products with a particularly critical repu-tation are foods of Chinese origin (Mergenthaler et al. 2009b, 429) as they are said to be the target of overly chemical treatment and preserva-tion as well as substandard controls (see Zhang, this volume).
Besides concerns over the quality of products, the interviewees’ con-cerns also related to questions of food hygiene in certain outlets. In gen-eral debates, food hygiene concerns in Vietnam predominantly concern street food or large-scale canteens, for example, in factories, some of which have been reported to produce cases of mass food poisoning (Viet Nam News 2016). While questions of hygiene of pre-cooked meals is less related to the purchase of organic foods for home-cooking, said concerns regarding certain food outlets did come up in the interviews in the con-text of food avoidance, proving to be of relevance for the customers.
The purchase of organic food was generally seen as the safe alternative to unsafe food. Meanwhile, customers’ explanations of organic farming varied widely, ranging from detailed knowledge about organic standards and practices to the more common description of organic farmers not using chemicals. In this regard, the internet was often named as the source of information on organic agriculture, yet the press as well as social media and friends played a role as information sources as well. It was also the recommendation of friends or internet research that led many of the customers to this specific shop, whereas others encountered it by chance.
This customer, who is an employee at a bank and a mother of two chil-dren aged one and five, frequents the shop as the owner is her friend, whose information on organic farming she seems to trust:
The quality of these vegetables, when they grow, until they collect the veg-etables in the field they control the quality from the company. And I know about it, because my friend [shop owner] told me personally. (Interview, 10/2015)
Others stressed that they could not be sure if the shop’s food was actu-ally safe or not, yet believed in it “based on a feeling” (Interview, 10/2015).
The element of uncertainty arose in a number of the interviews and was at times met with trial and error as Thanh describes:
We had food here several times as a trial. And then we stopped in short time because the food was so expensive, and we bought food in normal market for [a] meal … but we had [food] poison[ing]. Finally we use food faithfully in this shop …. I believe because no shop I can trust in like this shop. (Interview, 10/2015)